Look who came to New Orleans yesterday!
Yup. Sen. Kamala Harris swung through giving speeches and raising money. I begged entrance to a gathering for her at Dooky Chase, the most famous African-American restaurant in New Orleans and a must-stop for all politicians. Barack Obama went to Dooky’s five or six times, and any Dem who wants some liberal love (and some great fried catfish and chicken, and shrimp and grits, and….) has to go pay homage to Mrs. Leah Chase’s palace of Creole cuisine.
Let me tell you, folks, Kamala Harris is impressive. At first glance: smaller, funnier, and warmer than she appears on television. She delivered a brief version of her standard pitch, I'm sure, but made it feel as if she was speaking off the cuff. The theme was "Let's speak the truth," and she spoke it quite well. If every Democrat could see her in a small room like this, any hesitation about her charisma would disappear. Question is - can she translate that to big venues and TV?
“Our mother was five feet tall but if you met her, you’d think she was seven feet tall,” she said. “She was the kind of mother that if we came home complaining about something, she’d say, “What you gon’ do about it?”
And that’s why I’m running for President of the United States.”
I've been to a lot of these small-donor fundraising events, and usually the pol is on full-robot mode, say the spiel, shake some hands and get out the door. (Al Gore was the most robotic I've ever seen, while Jesse Jackson was the least.) Harris was completely aware of where she was, tailored the speech to the locals in the room, and generally did a great job of seeming to know who we were. And she asked us for our support, which they usually just assume they already have. Plus she stayed longer than she was supposed to, to the anxiety of her plentiful staff.
I think she needs to get herself on tv in one-on-one interviews with good questioners. Up close she seems real.
The candidates have to break through the scrum, there are so many of them. I was talking to one of the Harris campaign operatives later, after they told us not to take video. I asked, “how are you gonna get that Beto-on-Kaepernick moment that goes viral and pushes her to the front of the pack?” She looked at me like I was a loon.
On impeachment, she gave a senatorial answer: she wants to hear from Mueller before deciding. That’s fair but then last night Warren pushed the train out of the station.
